Researchers examining the structure of questions in signed languages, often using elicited data from informants, have proposed that there are specific manual and nonmanual actions produced by signers to indicate different question types (e.g., Zeshan 2004), for example, raised eyebrows for polar questions. In the current study, we add to this body…

There is a pressing need for effective pedagogical methods of manual languages, as evident in the decline of manual languages, such as New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). Despite being recognized as one of New Zealand's official languages, recent censuses have shown that fluent NZSL signers have been steadily decreasing. There is a cultural…

Mongolian Sign Language (MSL) is a visual-gestural language that developed from multiple languages interacting as a result of both geographic proximity and political relations and of the natural development of a communication system by deaf community members. Similar to the phonological systems of other signed languages, MSL combines handshapes,…

Listed with ordering information and in some cases brief annotations are 61 resources pertinent to use of manual communication by retarded, autistic, and aphasic individuals who cannot communicate effectively by speaking. (JG)

Sign languages modulate the production of signs in space and use this spatial modulation to refer back to entities--to maintain coreference. We ask here whether spatial modulation is so fundamental to language in the manual modality that it will be invented by individuals asked to create gestures on the spot. English speakers were asked to…

A survey of 86 persons using non-speech communication systems with retarded clients was conducted to determine which non-speech communication methods they used with which kinds of communication impaired populations. (SBH)

In the debate over continuities versus discontinuities in the emergence of language, sign language is not taken to be the antithesis, but is presented as the antecedent of spoken languages. (Author/HP)

Examines the relation of Pidgin Sign English to American Sign Language and the written English of deaf persons. (AM)

A description of 14 communication systems used by the deaf blind is provided. (PHR)

"Verbal" and "nonverbal" are confused and confusing terms. Gestural phenomena in semiotic use--gSigns--are called nonverbal but work in three major ways, only the first of which is unrelated to the highly encoded (verbal) activity called language. A gSign may: (1) have a general meaning: "yes,""no,""who…

People take their folk gestures seriously, which is illustrated in the fact that several folk gestures, such as raising the right hand and kissing the Bible, are used in religious and legal ceremonies. These and other gestures, such as making the sign of the cross and knocking on wood, are folk gestures used today which have their roots in early…

Ten-minute video recordings of the dyadic interactions between seven deaf children (mean age 5.5 years) and their communication partners (either deaf or hearing) were analyzed. Findings are reported in terms of interaction variables (initiation, continuation, ending, and complexity) and communicative modalities (sign, actions, conventional…

This 24-item annotated bibliography is intended to facilitate introduction to the field of sign language studies. It lists selected published works in English in which sign language is viewed from several different aspects, including: theoretical studies (nos. 1, 5, 6, 19, 20 and 21); works relating Sign to other visual communication systems (nos.…